A plasma display panel (hereinafter referred to as PDP) displays videos by the following method: generating ultraviolet rays by gas discharge, then the ultraviolet rays excite phosphor to emit light.
The PDPs are divided into two types in terms of driving methods, namely, an AC driven PDP and a DC driven PDP, and two discharge methods are available in PDPs, namely, a surface discharge PDP and an opposed discharge PDP. Presently the AC driven and surface discharge PDP having three electrodes becomes a mainstream in the market, which requires PDPs of a higher resolution, easiness for increasing a screen size, a simpler structure, and easiness for manufacturing.
The AC driven PDP is formed of a front plate and a rear plate. The front plate comprises the following elements:                a display electrode formed of scan electrodes and sustain electrodes on a substrate made of glass;        light blocking sections between the display electrodes;        a dielectric layer for covering both of the display electrodes and the light blocking sections; and        a protective layer for covering the dielectric layer.The rear plate comprises the following elements:        plural address electrodes formed on a glass substrate and oriented orthogonally to the display electrodes of the front plate;        a dielectric layer for covering the address electrodes; and        barrier ribs formed on the dielectric layer.The front plate is opposed to the rear plate, so that discharge cells are formed at the intersections of the display electrodes and data electrodes. The discharge cells have a phosphor layer therein.        
Each one of the display electrodes includes a transparent electrode and a bus electrode. The bus electrode is formed of a black electrode and a metal electrode made of mainly metal. The black electrode suppresses reflection of external light, and the metal electrode has a low resistance.
The PDPs have drawn attention recently among other flat panel displays because of the following advantages over liquid crystal display panels:                displaying videos at a higher speed;        having a greater view angle;        easiness for upsizing; and        better display quality due to self-luminous panel.The PDPs are thus employedin various applications for entertainment such as display devices used at community plazas or large screens of home entertainment devices.        
Japanese Patent Application Unexamined Publication No. 2002-83547 discloses a structure of the light blocking sections formed between each one of the display electrodes as well as the black layer as a structural element of the display electrode. The structure is this: a group of the electrodes is made of plural layers formed on a substrate, and one of the layers is made of a black layer having a higher sheet resistance than the other layers so that the one layer forms a black electrode. This black layer is integral with the light blocking sections.
However, when the black layer and the light blocking layer are commonly used as discussed above, electrostatic capacitance increases in the light blocking layer as a resistance of the black layer decreases, so that the power consumption increases. On the other hand, a greater resistance of the black layer increases an electric resistance of a transparent electrode, which is an element of the display electrode, so that the display characteristics are degraded.
The present invention addresses the problems discussed above, and aims to reduce the number of manufacturing steps and achieve PDPs that can display quality videos.